Scalping Now Legal In New York: Teams Can’t Cancel Season Tickets

By Alfred Branch, Jr.

New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer today signed a bill that removes all caps on what brokers and others can charge to resell tickets to events in the state, but the bill also prohibits New York sports teams from canceling the season tickets of fans who resell them.

Sponsored by state Assemblyman Joseph Morelle of Rochester, the bill was designed to thwart the New York Yankees and other teams from punishing season ticket holders for reselling their tickets. The Yankees want to control the secondary market for its tickets and strictly prohibits any resale. The team is creating a ticket exchange website where season ticket holders are authorized to resell their unused tickets. . .

“The bill also adds new language prohibiting the operators of places of entertainment from placing restrictions on their fans regarding the resale price and method of resale for tickets,” the new law states, which would mean the Yankees and others would have to drop their policy.

Several National Football League teams, including the Buffalo Bills and other professional teams have already created or plan to establish their own dedicated ticket exchanges.

There was little doubt the bill would be put into law as it not only had the support of the governor, but had also received support from New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg.

“Our ticket resale laws have needed reform for many years. This is the only market in which the government does not regulate the primary market, the initial price of a product, but then imposes limits on the secondary market, the resale price of the product,” Gov. Spitzer told New York Newsday. “This law makes sense because it eliminates resale price controls and lets the free market determine prices.”